Conservative Ted Cruz Goes After Progressive Jeb Bush for His Support for Common Core

It’s clear that Jeb isn’t a conservative, but it’s mighty kind of him to be honest about it. He could also do what the Mitch McConnells of this world like to do: lie about it until they get elected, after which they “suddenly” become as progressive as Nancy Pelosi.

That’s what Senator Ted Cruz recently said on Megyn Kelly’s show on Fox News.

Well, OK, I admit I added the last part about Mitch McConnell myself, but I’m sure you get my drift.

I’m a fan of Jeb Bush. I’ll give him credit for candor and consistency. He is running based on his views, his views are different from an awful lot of Republican primary voters, but he’s honest about it and I think we’re going to have a clear straight-up debate about what’s the right direction for the Republican Party to go.

Cruz continued:

I think it’s important for someone to stand by what they believe.

He’s right, of course; this way, Republican voters can’t possibly say Bush deceived them if they nominate him and he suddenly seems to be as far to the left as Hillary on many issues. You know what you get if you vote for Jeb: more government spending,  as well as more expansive government programs that increase the power of the federal government and that undermine the individual states.

I think we should repeal every single word of Common Core. The reason is I think education is far more important for it to be governed by unelected bureaucrats in Washington. It should be at the state level or better the local level…

Now, Bush and his ilk (I call them Theodore Roosevelt Republicans — they’re populist and decidedly progressive on many issues) pretend that individual states have the opportunity to bail out if they want to in theory, but sadly it’s an entirely different matter in practice:

Well sure they can, but there are a lot of dollars connected to it. The federal government, it’s sort of like the drug dealer that goes to junior high and gets the kid hooked saying “just try it once.” The federal government has offered the states these dollars and there’s so many strings attached.

Although Cruz is trailing Bush and candidates like Marco Rubio and Scott Walker in the polls at the moment, I can see the primaries boiling down to a horse race between Cruz and Jeb. The reason is simple: Bush is the most progressive Republican candidate (with an enormous amount of money to spend) while Cruz is the most conservative. Republican voters want to have a real choice; they’ll get that when these two take each other on.

If that happens, we can only hope (and pray) that Cruz pulls it off and becomes the Republican nominee. Jeb may be honest about his big-government ideology, but that’s also his only redeeming quality.